Can’t repair boot loader

[Member DynV]

On my 1st attempt to install antiX 19.4 386 full on a Dell PP01L (Latitude C600), in the panel right after the one with the option to select the whole drive to make partitions, there was a progress bar. When that bar reach pretty far I had to progress panels but it seemed the same bar remained, well it continued going up and at some point it gave an error about the boot loader; I think it’s the same error I got in a similar situation on my 2nd attempt, which is attached.

I didn’t have a good grasp of the message so I rebooted with the DVD out, waited a long time with the CPU running high and gave up on that path. I inserted the DVD then reattempted the installation hoping it would include checks to see if an attempt was already made, and if so take what was done and attempt to finish or fix it, but I had no such luck. The installation went pretty much the same way but without having to remake the partitions, although they had to be formatted as may be seen in an attachment. As mentioned in the previous paragraph, it was pretty much the same result (if not exactly the same).

Another time I tried rebooting without the DVD, failing, then rebooting with, but that time I tried finding something about grub or boot loader fixing or repairing in vain. I then booted through the DVD and looked around the menus, and after some minutes found Boot Repair, which I ran choosing to repair which seemed like a success.

Again booting w/o then w/ and tried a 2nd time at Boot Repair option to repair, and I’m not sure if it was the same result as the 1st time but my bad memory seem like it was, as may be seen in an attachment.

Oh! During the 2nd install attempt, I got a message that seemed like in the 1st one about SMART, as may be seen in an attachment.

Would you kindly help me get the boot loader working?

• This topic was modified 1 year, 11 months ago by DynV.

Attachments:

1. 

   Dell-PP01L-AntiX-GRUB-failed.png
   

2. 

   Dell-PP01L-AntiX-installer_after_failure-formatting_confirmation.png
   

3. 

   Dell-PP01L-AntiX-Boot_Repair-2nd_attempt.png
   

4. 

   Dell-PP01L-AntiX-SMART-higher_than_average.png
   

[Moderator christophe]

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Hello, DynV.
I think your hard drive is dying. That’s what it sounds like to me from the images & your narrative.
It sounds like you did things right from installation through boot repair.
The only thing I would ask (and it may sound too easy) — did you copy the grub boot loader to the mbr? (That’s where it should go).

confirmed antiX frugaler, since 2019

[Member ModdIt]

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Hi DynV, christophe is right, all hard drives are failing, just hard to know when, if or how.
Maybe we can do a bit of checking before considering immediate replacement.
(that is not criticism, he is one of the most helpful and knowledgable guys on the forum)

Please do a drive check, most of smart factors are manufacturer
specificaly interpreted i.e. weird and unlikely to help you assess if your drive is failing,
following are (some) strong indicators..

Check drive name with fdisk -l or df -h or if you like gparted.
Best place to inform yourself is https://www.smartmontools.org/

(sudo) smartctl -a /dev/hda
(sudo) smartctl -s on -a /dev/hda

SMART 187 Reported_Uncorrectable_Errors above 0 = A strong indication for a failing drive
SMART 5 – Reallocated_Sector_Count High count is an indication for following and this one.
SMART 188 – Command_Timeout.
SMART 197 – Current_Pending_Sector_Count.
SMART 198 – Offline_Uncorrectable

Do not be worried about many PRE FAIL notices, I have had drives show that and still running after years.

Please do post test results.
In cases of fail to install grub I have had most success with doing an automatic full disk install
of antiX. I think the problem is often partition labeling or efi weirdness when present.
Once a system boots I can then change partitioning as/if I wish to have a specific setup.
I always have separate home.

When possible I set stubborn devices to legacy in the BIOS.

• This reply was modified 1 year, 11 months ago by ModdIt.

[Member DynV]

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christophe wrote:

did you copy the grub boot loader to the mbr?

There was a selector with 3 choices and the 3rd was disabled, the default was the 1st which was MBR and I left it there (1st).

ModdIt wrote:

(sudo) smartctl -a /dev/hda
(sudo) smartctl -s on -a /dev/hda

See attached files; the one including “-sa” was for the 2nd command. Sorry if it was not what you were looking for, if it wasn’t just quote me what you wanted instead.

Update 1

I got to

ModdIt wrote:

fdisk -l or df -h

part, see attached.

• This reply was modified 1 year, 11 months ago by DynV.
• This reply was modified 1 year, 11 months ago by DynV.
• This reply was modified 1 year, 11 months ago by DynV.

Attachments:

1. Dell-PP01L-AntiX-smartctl-a.txt
2. Dell-PP01L-AntiX-smartctl-sa.txt
3. Dell-PP01L-AntiX-fdisk.txt
4. Dell-PP01L-AntiX-df.txt

[Member ModdIt]

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SMART overall-health self-assessment test result: PASSED
So your disk says it is OK.
5734 Power on hours but that does not mean it is failing

Keep an eye on
196 Reallocated_Event_Count
Presently at a count of 2, might have been that way for years, It indicates bad sectors reallocated to
reserve/spare area so as to keep disk capacity within specification.
If you wish, keep a note of it,should that parameter count go up quickly at any time do an immediate backup,
replace disk.

If you feel like it you could do an extended self test
using To run self-tests, use: smartctl -t
I would not bother.

Please try the auto install option of antiX so you have assurance that disk labels are correct.

“Important, None of your partitions are marked/flagged as boot in the fdisk readout !” which is (probably)
what is the answer to the why am I unable to boot issue.

Probably because there may be another problem on top, I think that is rather unlikely.
Hope you will soon be enjoying antiX as an installed system.

• This reply was modified 1 year, 11 months ago by ModdIt.
• This reply was modified 1 year, 11 months ago by ModdIt.

[Member DynV]

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ModdIt wrote:

Please try the auto install option of antiX so you have assurance that disk labels are correct.

I tried multiple minutes to find it. Would you kindly let me know where it is?

[Member ModdIt]

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I guess maybe calling it auto install is not as clear as it might be, sorry, I have done so many installations I
hardly read or think about it.

Check “Use Whole Disk” in the installer, right now I only have a live system in front of me so took a look there,
it is in the second attention box which opens during install.

That has helped me get a boot several times. I hope it will work for you, should that not be the case then please also check
that the HDD is set to first boot device in BIOS settings or your system may just show a black screen with blinking cursor
as it waits for CD/DVD device.
Additional: You can also keep tapping F12 after power on to get a select boot device list.

• This reply was modified 1 year, 11 months ago by ModdIt.

[Member DynV]

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ModdIt wrote:

Check “Use Whole Disk” in the installer, right now I only have a live system in front of me so took a look there,
it is in the second attention box which opens during install.

Do you mean the selected option? I seems to be the 1st for me. And if you do mean that option, I have selected that 3 times now, and grub failed to install 3 times. The version I’m using is in the image file name, it’s also in the OP.

• This reply was modified 1 year, 11 months ago by DynV.

Attachments:

1. 

   VMware-antiX-19.4_386-full-installation_type.png
   

[Member Xecure]

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Even if GRUB fails to install, using the Boot repair to Re-install and then to repair fixes the issue. Boot again to a live USB, don’t install (it is already installed), and go directly to boot repair program. (First reinstall to MBR pointing to the antiX root partition, and then Repair grub the same way).

antiX Live system enthusiast.
General Live Boot Parameters for antiX.

[Member DynV]

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If you look at the OP 3rd & 4th paragraph, it mention I did; for both instances I did–not–try to install in that same session (from boot to shutdown). I tried after and did the 1st 2 options in the attachment.

Attachments:

1. 

   VMware-antiX-19.4_386-Boot_Repair-initial.png
   

[Member Xecure]

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DynV wrote:

If you look at the OP 3rd & 4th paragraph

DynV wrote:

I then booted through the DVD and looked around the menus, and after some minutes found Boot Repair, which I ran choosing to repair which seemed like a success.

Again booting w/o then w/ and tried a 2nd time at Boot Repair option to repair, and I’m not sure if it was the same result as the 1st time but my bad memory seem like it was, as may be seen in an attachment.

I may be confused, but I see Repair both times, and Reinstall was not mentioned. Please make sure you reinstall grub first before you repair grub.
If you did so, then I really have no idea what is the best option. If installing o a separate boot partition, maybe that will circumvent the MBR boot installation, but I am no expert, so I cannot give you any advice. Maybe someone who has experience with faulty MBR installations may be able to help.

antiX Live system enthusiast.
General Live Boot Parameters for antiX.

[Member DynV]

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Look at my last post last sentence; maybe you were confused by me using Arabic numerals, I’ll try another way: I […] did the first two […]. For 2/3 of my install attempt I used the option to use the whole disk.

[Member Xecure]

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Ok.

If you run the DVD, and in the BOOT MENU (before going in to the running antiX system) you do:

A. Switch to GRUB boot Loader > Boot Rescue Menus > GRUB Boot Loader
Does it show any installations?
If it does, select the installation and see if it can boot too it.

If it doesn’t show (or doesn’t boot), try instead
B. Switch to GRUB boot Loader > Boot Rescue Menus > GRUB Menus
and it should find the antiX installation. Select it to boot to the installed system.

If everything goes OK, you should be able too boot to the installed antiX with one of both options above. Install updates and see how it goes. Then, try from inside the INSTALLED antiX to boot repair.

Can anyone advice the OP if boot reinstalling to PBR (root) and then adding the “boot” and “legacy-boot” flags to the root partition using gparted help circumvent the MBR boot error?

• This reply was modified 1 year, 11 months ago by Xecure. Reason: typos

antiX Live system enthusiast.
General Live Boot Parameters for antiX.

[Member DynV]

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I selected

Xecure wrote:

DVD, and in the BOOT MENU (before going in to the running antiX system) you do:

A. Switch to GRUB boot Loader

and there’s a window entitled “Boot Loader” with content “/boot/grub/i386-pc/lnxboot.img: file not found” and underneath it there’s another window which the title is almost all covered with content “Loading Linux Kernel”.

[Member Xecure]

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DynV wrote:

and there’s a window entitled “Boot Loader” with content “/boot/grub/i386-pc/lnxboot.img: file not found” and underneath it there’s another window which the title is almost all covered with content “Loading Linux Kernel”.

This is strange. It is included in the i386 iso.
I don’t have a 32bits machine, but running antiX 19.4 full i386 in a VM does let me access grub menu.
https://youtu.be/Yrrd89pswrY

Does anyone know if some machines cannot get to the grub menus or if this could be related to a corrupted ISO download? (Probably not if the OP already performed a F4 > checkfs or checkmd5).

Any other voices who can give us expert advice are welcome.

antiX Live system enthusiast.
General Live Boot Parameters for antiX.

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